A member of Energy Secretary Stephen Chu’s security detail advance staff contracted Influenza A while in Mexico in connection with President Obama’s recent trip there, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said a few minutes ago.

Gibbs did not identify the staffer, but said he'd spread the flu virus to three family members in Maryland and that further testing was being done to try to nail down whether it was the swine flu virus. In any event, the staffer and his relatives were all reported to have recovered and the staffer was back at work today.

Gibbs said the staffer did attend a working dinner on April 16, the same day he began to feel ill, but that he had not been within six feet of the president. More information is expected to be released later today.

It's probably never a good thing when your spokeswoman has to put out a statement explaining what you REALLY meant.

Vice President Joe Biden went on NBC's Today Show this morning, where Matt Lauer asked him, if a family member was thinking of taking a commercial flight to Mexico in the next week, in light of the swine flu, would Biden think it was a good idea? Lauer said that "this is by no means a gotcha type of question, I promise."

Said Biden, "I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now." Biden said it wasn't just about not going to Mexico but that if "you're in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft." That even goes for the subway, Biden said. "So from my perspective, what it relates to is mitigation."

"If you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing. If you're in a closed aircraft or a closed container, a closed car, a closed classroom, it's a different thing."

Soon after, Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander issued a statement to White House reporters. It said, “The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the Administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways. This is the advice the Vice President has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this week. As the President said just last night, every American should take the same steps you would take to prevent any other flu ..."

The U.S. Travel Association's president and CEO, meanwhile, issued a statement "regarding recent comments that might discourage Americans from using public transportation or commercial aviation." The statement from Roger Dow said according to expert advice "swine flu should not discourage people from traveling to or within the United States.

"Elected officials must strike a delicate balance of accurately and adequately informing citizens of health concerns without unduly discouraging travel and other important economic activity."

Sen. Roland Burris, D-Il., thinks swine flu is giving pork a bad name. So at Wednesday's Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Burris asked Anne Schuchat, the Center for Disease Control's interim deputy director for science and public health programs, if health officials could give the disease a new name.

"I've been in contact with pork producers in the great state of Illinois and they're requesting that we come up with some other name for this influenza or this virus because they call it swine flu but you always hear the reports saying it has nothing to do with swine," Burris said.

Schuchat told the junior senator from Illinois that health officials call the disease H1N1 influenza. Burris was unimpressed.

"That's not sexy," he responded.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano disagreed.

"I just call it H1N1," she told the committee. "And actually after you say H1N1 a few times, it does roll off the tongue."

President Barack Obama and his staff do not have the swine flu, his press secretary said Sunday.

Obama visited Mexico City a little more than a week ago, the site of an outbreak of the contagious flu. Since his April 16 visit, more than 1,000 people there have contracted swine flu, and at least 68 have died from it.

Mexico City has all but shut down out of fear, with public activities suspended, and schools closed. The Roman Catholic Church canceled Masses there Sunday morning.

Adding to the speculation that Obama may have been exposed were Internet reports that he met with a man during his visit who later died. However, Mexican health officials said the man, archeologist Felipe Solis, had a pre-existing illness and died of pneumonia, not the contagious swine flu.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that the incubation period for the swine flu is 24 to 48 hours, and that Obama and his staff are well past that stage. "The president's trip to Mexico has not put his health in any danger," Gibbs said.